planetmars wrote:
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I hate hearing the first two of these 3 statements - I think they are largely poorly thought through and are dripping with nostalgic bias.
"Players aren't as good as they used to be" - it's incredibly naive to insult the hundreds of front office/coaching professionals in all levels of basketball by implying that no one has learned from the past or improved their methods over the last few decades. All levels of basketball are filled with more and depth and talent overall making for an increasingly competitive platform for those playing/learning. Sports science, advanced statistics, training, medical, and nutritional methods, etc have all improved hugely every generation since the beginning of the game. Simply put - Jordan/Kareem/Magic/Chamberlain were no doubt great but it's absurd to deny that they did it against lesser competition - I hardly think it's absurd at all to reason that the vast majority of their opponants/peers wouldn't meet the standards of today's NBA .
"Make them go to College" - This is constantly spun as a "Do it for the kid's", but realistically it's much more of a negotiated political stance with the NCAA/FIBA (think $$$) and a large measure of saving GM's/Owners from destroying themselves drafting high risk diamond in the rough types like Kobe/KG/LBJ/etc. There is always exceptional talent that could be hurt by being forced to play as a man among boys (nevermind financially hurt), but the real problem is who decides where to draw the line?
"Big guys play big/Little guys play little" - While it's important to develop talent to optimize their size/athletic qualities, you also don't want to smother their existing talents by doing so. To speak to the thread topic directly - only top talent is worth trying to build around in an unorthodox way in today's NBA...
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